Gaggle of senators tries to mint a new one at Clement Park

A trio of successful applicants to the U.S. Senate club joined a candidate who would love to claim the honor at Littleton’s Clement Park Tuesday afternoon, and the sun came out late for a photo opportunity.

Republican hopeful Ken Buck was flanked in the picnic-area ampitheater by South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, and former Colorado Sen. Bill Armstrong. Thune was the name that brought them together, as he came to Colorado to help Buck fundraise and to kick off early voting on the day mail ballots dropped in many Colorado counties.

Sen. John Thune, Ken Buck, Sen. John Barrasso and former Sen. Bill Armstrong at Clement Park

Thune, part of the Senate leadership team, is also expected to make a run at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Thune unseated then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in a stinging defeat for Democrats in 2004.

Thune put himself, Buck and Barrasso in a smaller club of Western politicians who tell it like it is, and don’t change once they hit Washington, D.C.

“People are tired of politicians who say one thing and do another,” Thune said. “Authenticity is something that’s lost in American life today.” Thune prompted anti-Democrat catcalls when he listed a host of new government regulations he said will try to control Western life, including a failed effort to limit “methane emissions from livestock” and an EPA proposal to regulate dust.

“There is today, going on in Washington, D.C., a war on the West,” Thune said.

The emerging sunshine and crisp weather at Clement Park was likely a welcome breather for Buck, who spent much of the day fielding a barrage of phone calls and queries about a rape case he declined to prosecute five years ago.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.